Verse of the Day for April 22

Jonah has already been given this commission once. He ran in the opposite direction, was thrown overboard, and spent three days somewhere nobody would describe as a second chance.

And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh.

The second time. The narrator records it plainly, without any comment on whether Jonah deserved it.

And the commission is identical. Not a smaller city, not a demoted role, not a probationary assignment. The same instruction, word for word from chapter one.

Which is worth sitting with, because it is not how most institutions treat someone who has failed publicly and expensively.

Jonah then goes, preaches, and the city repents — and chapter four reveals he is still the same difficult, resentful man he was at the start. God used him anyway, and then kept arguing with him afterwards.

The second word is not a reduced word. That is the detail the book insists on.

He was not fixed first. He was sent again and dealt with afterwards.